CHAPTER XXXIV
The Heart Prairie Settlement in Walworth County, Wisconsin. Skoponong. Pine Lake.
Walworth County forms one of the southern tier of counties in Wisconsin, being situated between Rock on the west and Kenosha and Racine on the east; to the north lies Jefferson County. There are four Norwegian settlements in the county, as follows: (1) in the southern part of the Town of Whitewater and the northern part of the Town of Richmond lies the Heart Prairie Settlement, taking its name from the beautiful little prairie directly east of it; (2) about four miles east of the city of Whitewater lies Skoponong, partly in Whitewater Township and extending north into Jefferson County as far as Palmyra; (3) in the city of Whitewater there is a considerable Norwegian colony, and (4) about six miles southeast of Heart Prairie lies the Sugar Creek Settlement, extending from about five miles north of Delavan to about three miles northeast of Elk Horn, the county seat of Walworth County. It is the first of these settlements that we shall discuss in this chapter.
The first Norwegian settlers at Heart Prairie were Ole A. Sögal and wife Kari, who, with their four children Anne, Andrea, Karen, and Johanne, came in 1842 and located four miles and a half southeast of the city of Whitewater. They lived there only a few years, however, then moved to Wautoma, Waushara County, in Central Wisconsin. The next settler was Ole’s brother, Hans A. Milebon, who with his wife Kari came in 1843, and settled about a mile north of his brother’s place; they had one daughter, Mary Ann, who was about three years old when they came, and who is still living near Whitewater.
During the year 1844 a number of families arrived from Norway and settled at Heart Prairie. They were as follows: Hans Arveson Vale and wife Aaste (Esther), with children Arve (or Harvey) and Isak. Mr. Arveson bought his first eighty acres at government price of $1.25 per acre, and built his log house in the fall of 1844. In this log cabin many a Norwegian immigrant found a temporary home upon his first arrival in Wisconsin in the early days of the settlement. Here Mr. Arveson lived, cultivating his own farm, until his death in 1873 at the age of sixty-one; the widow died in June, 1900, at the age of eighty-six. Hans Thompson and wife Marie also came in 1844; they had three children, Thomas, Karen and Ann. He bought land adjoining Arveson’s farm, lived the first winter in a dug-out. But the next spring “when the snakes began to come in,” writes my informant, they moved to the Arveson’s where they lived till they got their log-house built.
Andres J. Skipnes and his wife Aaste also came at the time; they settled near Ole Arveson, but lived there only a short time, then moved to a farm near Stoughton, Wisconsin. Ole J. Vale and wife Anne likewise came in the same party, but they went to Sugar Creek, where a son, John, and a daughter, Annie Torine, had located the year before.[306] Another arrival at this time was Peder H. Swerge, and Ole Tölvson Grönsteen and wife Kari and three children, Tosten Olson, a carpenter, and wife Aaste, Karine, a daughter of Halvor Anderson, came in 1844. Tosten built most of the log-cabins that were erected in the settlement for a number of years. His wife died soon after coming to America, and Tosten died in the Civil War. Finally the accessions of 1844 included also the following persons: Gunder H. Lunde, Anne Kosa, Ole O. Huset and family, John C. Opsal, and Halvor Huset. The latter two remained only a short time, then went west; Ole O. Huset located on Koshkonong.[307]
All the above thirty-one persons who emigrated in 1844 were from the vicinity of Skien in Holden, and all came on the same ship, namely, Salvator, Captain Johan Gasman. They were nine weeks on the ocean, landing in New York July 4th; they came by the regular route to Milwaukee, thence they drove in lumber wagons to Heart Prairie.
For the year 1845 the following accessions are to be noted: The brothers Nils and Gunder C. Opsal; Halvor A. Lunde and wife Ann and six children, most of them grown up, and another son Gulleik and wife Dorothea; Anders J. Björndokken; Johans Grönsteen with wife Maria and three children. For 1846 we note the following: Anders Gunderson, John Arveson and wife Kjersti and four children;[308] Lukas Ingebretson; Anders G. Bjerva, wife Anne and four children:[309] Anne, Börte Maria, Karen, and Jens, who many years ago moved to Crookston, Minnesota; and John Grönsteen and wife Asberg. All those who came during the years 1845–46 were from near Skien.
In 1847 Christen M. Bö, wife Inger and four children from Gjerpen came to Heart Prairie; and in 1848 came Ole Nilsen from Christiansand.